A study on identity and perception. Publication in progress, 2026
Set-up of the installation „AI, Hot Mess.“
Exhibition on view until June 2026
The installation is a poetic preoccupation with the intangible, with a world that vacillates between the rational and the irrational, the discursive and the intuitive.
Upcycled glass, wood, acryl paint
Information: https://www.mqw.at/en/institutions/q21/program/the-cloud-of-unknowing/
Glass objects with glass lids, handpainted colored gradients. Limited edition of 50 / MQ Point Shop, MuseumsQuartier Wien
Client: MuseumsQuartier Wien
June 9 – Sep 23 2023
Client: Paint It Black Bookstore and Publishing House, Turin, Italy
Say Say Say, Inc. was commissioned to design the „May at Q21 / MuseumsQuartier Wien“ visuals.
Read a short interview in the MQ Journal: https://www.mqw.at/en/mq-journal/say-say-say-inc-studio-for-imagination
Client: Q21, MuseumsQuartier Wien
A year-long installation and work-in-progress that aims to create a space for experimentation and exchange. The first part visualises a poetic and conceptual exploration of the state of things and gives symbolic meaning to objects that stand for the origin of ideas in materialised form.
The second part of the work-in-progress installation examines the expansion of thought and a condensation of sensations that reflect on the human condition.
The closing part: THE ARCHIVE OF SENSATIONS.
The spatial work-in-progress installation explores the concept of publishing in relation to other languages and forms of expression.
Series of silent scenes that suddenly shift into motion, questioning how we perceive a flood of imagery compressed into seconds on social media – where, in an instant, something could occur that transforms an image into something with an entirely different meaning.
Periodikum is a biennial publication that presents a new reality by exploring wondrous visions of our inner and outer worlds. Because we believe, what we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. (We didn’t say this . . . Plutarch did.)
theperiodikum.com
In the form of „thought images,“ it takes readers on journey into our most hidden spaces. Those images are composed as concealed worlds in different layers that deal with the unconscious and the enigmatic.
The manifesto part reveals very personal thoughts in the form of questions, which Thaddaeus Ropac, Susan MacWilliam, Yehuda Safran and Dagmar Frinta here pose to themselves and/or the world. It is suggested that recipients respond to the question so as to learn something about both themselves and the questioner. The question manifesto is the poetic “birth” of a value, idea or symbolic force.
Limited edition of 100, published by: Verlag für Moderne Kunst and Artbook D.A.P New York
Installation, Antichambre, MQ Wien
A symbol is mask and revelation at the same time; it always points to another level of existence and, in addition to its revelatory function for the initiate it has a veiling effect for the uninitiated. In all areas of life it gives expression to the symbolic quality of human existence, where “the inner is suggested by an outer, the spiritual by something material, the whole by a part, the invisible by something visible, the unchanging by something transitory.”
Spatial installation and interactive website
By venturing into the unknown, our unconscious, a seemingly surreal universe, one will also encounter imagination, the faculty of forming new worlds not present to the senses. What if we do have already all the power we need within us to imagine something better?
Rotating paper object with folding techniques on one side, black-and-white print
Interactive website: https://saysaysayinc.com/antichambre/7_follow-the-white-rabbit
(a hint: follow the white rabbit to the one dot that does not disappear ...)
The installation explores ontological aspects – embedded in a cinematic sensuality in which space acts as an inner window, drawing our attention to the multiple mutable states of being.
Antichambre, MQ Wien, May–Oct 2022
Digital design & coding, Antichambre, Museumsquartier Wien
Hybrid Installation,
22nd Biwako Biennale, Japan
Life on earth can be quite insufferable at times, but aren’t we sometimes offered a universally accessible source that gives us answers to find some relief and perhaps burst out laughing? Ask the Oracle!
22nd Biwako Biennale, Japan
The oracle, which also represents our collective unconscious, can act as a house of transformation, a metaphysical space, where the present meets the past and the future.
Interactive BiScriptual digital application supported by Bildrecht and ACF Tokyo
https://oracle.saysaysayinc.com
Photo: Paula Gomez
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst – EIKON
Launch of a new uncoated fine paper brand;
Naming, Logo Design
We developed the name Pergraphica, which derives from the latin-origin Pergraphicus („most exquisite“ and „very skillful“) and reflects perfectly the multifunctional skills of the paper. The signet was designed as a modern reinterpretation of a watermark, establishing a connection to the history of paper manufacturing.
Client: Mondi Group
Installation, Antichambre, Museumsquartier Wien / Digital design & coding
Our present is located in an age of space and in an advancing consciousness of space. Because of the increasing density of space—virtual space, our living space and outer space—we long for a chance to pause a moment to experience the space around us and inside us as something accessible to our senses. Identity with space develops when a human brings parts of its “persona” into balance with parts of space.
Hot-wire cutter, foam
The exhibition celebrated Karl Reissberger’s typeface Forte, marking 60 years since its publication by the Monotype Corporation. Artists from different disciplines were asked to contribute their interpretations of the Forte typeface. Book published by www.slanted.de/product/finding-forte
Codex III: The Tower is an exploration of concepts of time, place, matter, religion and ritual, challenging the utopian dream: the floating of architectural form, the elimination of gravity as the embodiment of earthly bonds.
Photography:
Jutta Wacht, „in uno omnia“, various materials, 2019
Building the tower.
Client: Paint It Black Publishing House & Bookstore
Eternal house, Etemenanki, cathedral of the vertical city, magic totem. The tower as a sequestered space or world mountain, a symbol of philosophical thought and the graduated spiritual ascent of humankind.
Photography: „Die imaginären Türme“, Jutta Wacht, various materials, 2017–19
Stop motion animation, 2020
The five-volume reference work on contemporary photographic art and its fields of research includes contributions by the international photography experts David Bate (UK), Linde B. Lehtinen (USA), Steffen Siegel (Germany), Abigail Solomon-Godeau (USA/France), and Urs Stahel (Switzerland).
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst – EIKON
Paper: Biotop 3 by Mondi
Landscapes dissolved into their CMYK data for the swatchbook of eco-friendly paper BioTop3.
Client: Mondi Group
Embue OL is the first in a series of Life Balance Formulas.
Client: Embue LLC
Client: Vasistas, Jakob Buresch
Ten years, ten days, ten designers. On the occasion of the Design Week‘s 10th anniversary, we were invited to collect impression on one of the festival days and to transpose these on the following day into an ad-hoc magazine in the Festival Headquarters Open Office.
Client: Vienna Design Week
Special Issue #100 / three different covers showcasing the work of the three female artists who won the EIKON 45+ Photography Award:
Susan MacWilliam, Gabriele Rothemann, and Katrín Elvarsdóttir.
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst— EIKON
Spread / Issue #109
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst— EIKON
Issue #114 / In Focus: The Crisis and Beyond
EIKON at PARK Concept Store, Vienna
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst— EIKON
Issue #115 / In Focus: NFTs
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst— EIKON
EIKON Showroom
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst— EIKON
Issue #107
featuring Sophie Calle, Valter Ventura, Tillmann Kaiser et al.
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst - EIKON
Issue #105 / In Focus: Ethics of Exhibiting
Client: Österreichisches Institut für Photographie und Medienkunst - EIKON
Printed matter, digital presence, coding
Client: Nella Edit, New York
Client: Studio 2000, non-profit organization
Transparent outer slipcase with project–journals inside, showcasing architectural projects for Helmut Lang.
Spatial Installation, Antichambre, MQ Wien, 2021
In-between COVID. All the raw materials with which memory has burdened itself fall into line, arrange themselves, merge, and submit to that immense elevation which is the result of a childlike perception—that is, a sharp perception whose innocence possesses a kind of magic. The object of play is beauty; its ultimate goal is freedom.
Re-design and development of the magazine‘s main typfeface
Client: Buero New York, NY / Vogue Hommes International, Paris
68 pages, approx. 80 illustrations
Alles ist Fotografie (Everything is Photography) is a tribute to a medium which is omnipresent like no other, and which helps determine almost all aspects of our lives—and will continue to do so.
Photo: Studio Eggenberger
Client: Gregor Eggenberger
Exhibition identity design for the group show ab_bilden, featuring photographers Gregor Eggenberger, Claudia Larcher, and Sinta Werner.
Photo: Studio Eggenberger
Client: Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin
Monthly poster campaign
Q21, MQ‘s creative hub from 2001-2023, commissioned us to create a poster built around the letter “Q” that stands for Q21:
Utopian adventures with the supersonic concorde through space and time, hosted by MQ/Q21 and Say Say Say, Inc!
Client: MuseumsQuartier Wien + Q21
Signage systems are usually just informational. Our system, originally created for Vienna Art Week, aimed to communicate through form and aesthetics and to provoke a reaction in the viewer—either WOW! or UGH! It can then become the starting point for a deeper engagement with the content. In collaboration with eSeL.
Clients: MuseumsQuartier Wien and Vienna Art Week
The Lookbook was awarded Print Product of the Year 2012.
Art Direction, Design, Art Buying
Client: Mondi Group
Art Direction and Design / Printed matter, digital presence, coding
Client: ABC—Art by Concept
The spatial installation revolves around the metaphysical aspects of light and its transformative effect on space.
Client: Paint It Black Bookstore and Publishing House, Turin, Italy
Client: Paint It Black + Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
Series of silent scenes that suddenly shift into motion, questioning how we perceive a flood of imagery compressed into seconds on social media – where, in an instant, something could occur that transforms an image into something with an entirely different meaning.